Putnam to extend its popular walking trail

PUTNAM — The river walk is more popular than ever and its future includes expansion.

The town plans to extend the river trail south past the farmers market and also connect it to the Air Line trail after the footbridge at Simonzi Park.

"We're excited about the possibilities," Town Administrator Douglas Cutler said.

Economic and Community Development Director Delpha Very has had the Northeastern Connecticut Council of Governments do counts of foot traffic on the river walk trail over a period of months. The counts were taken at four locations, the farmers market, Simonzi Park, Cargill Falls and Riverfront Commons. Very said they can distinguish from human traffic and dog traffic and show the river walk gets significant daily use.

The counters found that in the summer of 2012 an average of almost 90 people a weekday walked on the trail in the farmers market area, with that average rising to 93 on weekends.

At Cargill Falls the numbers are even greater. An average of 332 users were counted on weekends during the same period and weekdays the average was more than 145 people.

"I see a lot of people pushing baby strollers on the path," said Delia Fey, a member of the Economic Development Commission. "It's good to know people are using it."

Very said it's not just Putnam residents who use the walkway. She knows from the cars in the parking lots, there are often visitors from Rhode Island and Massachusetts using the path.

Ron and Elaine Smith of Thompson walk the river trail almost daily with their dog. As a former military family, the Smiths said they have traveled the country and the river walk in Putnam stands out.

"Only the river walk in Monterey Calif., is better than this," Ron Smith said.

"This is just such a beautiful place," Elaine said.

"And it's very safe," Ron added.

The town also has a $105,000 grant to extend the walk to the Air Line Trail, which are walking trails along abandoned railways, going toward Putnam. The town will create a one-mile stone dust path from the west-side of the Simonzi Park pedestrian bridge to a section of the airline trail that connects to Pomfret. Cutler said he expects that work to begin in the spring.

Cutler said extending the walk to the south is tied to plans for a technical business park. The town is in the process of acquiring 62-acres from Wheelabrator to start the park. The town would then transfer 15 of those acres to the YMCA. Cutler said the plan is to extend the river walk to the existing Wheelabrator access bridge, which will be turned into a pedestrian bridge, when work begins on the tech park. The pedestrian bridge would then connect to a trail system throughout the tech park and an existing trail that goes through Wheelabrator's property.

Cutler said the trail system has not been planned out, but the property lends itself to a non-invasive recreation use.

"You're in Putnam, but you don't feel like you're in Putnam in there," Cutler said. "It's a very wooded area."

Eventually, the hope is to extend the trail all the way to the town line with Killingly and complete a connection of the East Coast Greenway, a biking and walking trail from Florida to Maine.

"It's the biker's version of the Appalachian Trail," Cutler said. "We'll have a great opportunity when people use this for economic development. People will be able to come to Putnam to pick up more supplies."